Thursday, May 29, 2008

Prepared?

How do you know if you are prepared for a 100 mile run? How many miles do you need to run per week/month? How long does your longest run need to be? Food, hydration, electrolytes, socks, shoes, foot care, flashlights, batteries, clothing, sunscreen, bug dope...is everything in order and accounted for? Is the "crew" trained and ready? Am I ready...to do this?

I don't know if I can answer all of these questions but I have given it my "best shot" in preparation. In 8 days I will need to give it my "best shot" in a 100. I am truly looking forward to this event and the challenge and hardship to complete this goal.

It sounds strange and crazy to most people...to run 100 miles, but to me and many others in the ultra running community...we understand. Most people I know ask me "why?". I tell them the usual "challenge" explanation and I still get "but why?". Sometimes I will reply "why a 10k or a half marathon or a marathon?". I don't think most people give themselves enough credit for what they can achieve physically. Usually, after a full discussion about running a long event, people seem genuinely interested and excited to know what the outcome will be. I think I either have really good friends and family or they want to stop talking about running and move on to something else in the conversation.

Which brings me back to the question...am I prepared?

3 comments:

SteveQ said...

From my experience, you won't know if you're prepared until you've been on the course for 16-18 hours (about sundown, usually).

Adam said...

Hey Brent! Glad I stumbled across this, didn't know you had a blog. Best of luck at KM, you'll kill it.

Matthew Patten said...

i am still asking myself why.

you are ready.

As Julie Berg said, one of her mistakes was not having enough confidence in her ability.

I have confidence I will make it to 100K okay. The rest is questionable.

See you in one week.

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